Waiting for ABBA

After departing from the 7-Eleven yesterday, I slowly made my way to the city centre. I really wanted to go to Gamla stan (the Old Town) to experience that part of the city again. It was surprising to me just how well I remembered the city and where everything was located. I didn't even have to look at my map once to see where I was heading. The only thing is that distances are much longer than I remember, and the city itself is much larger. That being said, I eventually arrived in Gamla stan and did some window shopping, looking for a particular gift for my niece Gabrielle. I didn't find what I was looking for, so I'll try again later. In the meantime, I stopped at a small cafe in the Old Town and had traditional köttbullar: Swedish meatballs in gravy, served with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce. Delicious. I had been dreaming of having them again.

After lunch, I figured I would make my way to the island of Djurgården, just to check out the location of ABBA The Museum. So I took a ferry there from the city centre, and walked over to ABBA The Museum, located just next door to the Gröna Lund amusement park. The museum is actually a huge hotel complex, and the interactive exhibits are on the two lower levels. There is also a gift shop, a bar and a restaurant. Because the grand opening is just on 7 May, I did not go in. But there was a gated area behind which some fans had gathered to look at preparations for the evening's gala event. I figured I would join them and hang out, in the hopes of maybe catching a glimpse of my childhood idols.

It was around 2:30 p.m. when I got there. They were just putting out the pink carpet, getting decorations ready and rehearsing the musical numbers for the evening's performances. I must have been standing there no more than 20 minutes, when Benny Andersson came out of the hotel to fetch something he needed, I guess. On his way back in, the fans yelled out his name, hoping that he would come greet us, but he just said that he was busy at the moment, and returned to the hotel. Everything went by so quickly I did not have a chance to take a picture.

After about 90 minutes of being out there, the staff of ABBA The Museum came right up to us all at the gate and offered us all complimentary cupcakes they had baked. It was very kind of them, and I was moved. Suddenly, Benny emerged from the hotel again and came right up to the gate to sign some autographs. At one point he was standing probably about 5 feet from me, and I got a good picture of him. He then departed in his small Toyota car, so modest that no one would have known it was his. Shortly thereafter, I was joined by two locals from Stockholm, in their early sixties. I later learned they were called Rolf and Ann-Christin. Rolf willingly spoke English with me but acknowledged that Anne-Christin was too shy to speak English. So I started speaking with them in Swedish. Because we found each other standing at that barrier for most of the afternoon, we chatted a long, long time and got to know each other. I think we bonded there and then and really enjoyed each other's company. They seemed to really like me because I knew all about the Swedish musical scene from when they were teenagers: The Hep Stars, the Hootenanny Singers, Lill-Babs, Lena Andersson, Svenne and Lotta, etc. They were blown away and couldn't understand how I could know so much about these artists. For his part, Rolf admitted that he is a huge Joni Mitchell fan, and said he enjoyed his time in Quebec City when he was in the navy.

Around dinner time, the staff from the museum came by again, this time with apples and oranges. Ann-Christin said she wanted something a bit more substantial, so she went off to a small cafe somewhere and came back some time later with tea for all three of us and some pastries. I told her she was så snäll (so sweet). It must have been around 7:00 p.m. when they told us that the gala event would start at 8:00 p.m., so we decided to stay and wait for it. All the time, I kept looking at the other fans around me and felt woefully inadequate: some of them were sporting huge tattoos relating to ABBA. A woman had "Annifrid Lyngstad" tattooed all along her arm, and the "A" logo from Agnetha's new album, tattoed on her neck. Others came equipped with their ABBA t-shirts (I don't even own one), or the original tour programmes from the 1979 North American tour.

At 8:00 p.m., the guests began to arrive and it was a veritable who's who of the Swedish music industry. I spotted a ton of artists I recognized, much to Rolf and Ann-Christin's amusement. Luckily they were there and were able to help me identify others that I could not recognize by sight. Because we were standing in a shaded area, and were now surrounded by eager fans, we could not really move at the risk of losing our good spots, and we shivered in the chilly night air. The first celebrity I recognized was Tommy Körberg, who sang on the original soundtrack of Benny and Björn's musical "Chess". Then, Ann-Christin pointed out to me her good friend Jan Schaeffer, ABBA's guitarist. Next came Little Gerhard, the man who discovered Agnetha Fältskog and signed her to his label in 1968. Then Mats Ronander showed up, and he was followed by no less than Lotta, whom I recognized immediately, accompanied by her husband Svenne Haglund. Rolf pointed out singer Carola to me. Then I spotted Nanne Grönvall, whose song "Håll om mig" I sang at karaoke in Helsinki. She was accompanied by her husband, Peter Grönvall, son of Benny Andersson. When they walked past me, I called out Peter's name, so the couple turned, and posed for a great picture I took. Ann-Christin made a point of telling them I was from Canada, and they seemed pleased to know they had an international fan base.Then Benny appeared again, and almost immediately, Frida arrived. The fans went wild. We were trying to get her to come to the gate, but she told us she had to speak with the press first, and then she would come to us. She eventually stood less than 5 feet away from me and I got some good shots of her. She seemed to be accompanied by Görel Hanser, who is now involved in some capacity as anagent for each of them. Finally Björn showed up. He signed some autographs for us, and I took a few good pictures of him. He too stood less than 5 feet from me.

A fan next to me was carrying a sign. He told whoever would listen that it was a message to Agnetha, and when he would unroll the sign, it read: "You Should Be Here". At one point, this unknown, blonde Swedish celebrity or celebrity wannabe came near him, and he shouted, "This is a message to Agnetha". The blonde quipped: "Oh, I thought it said 'Fuck Off!'". None of us found that funny. Agnetha Fältskog was not in attendance tonight because she is promoting her new album in England (though everyone is wondering why she would schedule her promotional tour right now, if not to avoid being around her old musical partners).

The show began promptly at 8:00 p.m. and included remixed versions of "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" and "Summer Night City". I really liked these versions and hoped they would be available for download. The show ended with fireworks, but I missed them because I really had to pee, and ducked out to use a washroom (should not have had that tea).

When I came back, the show had just ended. Rolf and Ann-Christin offered to walk with me to the Pressbyrå, or small newsstand at Centralen. Thanks to them, I realized that what I was carrying was not the actual ticket to ABBA The Museum, but a receipt for the ticket, which I had to exchange at a newspaper stand. Because these close at 11:00 p.m., and it was then 10:20 p.m., they were concerned I would not be able to get my ticket on time, if I did not know where the nearest Pressbyrå was located. So they actually took the ferry with me -- well out of their way -- and made sure I could get my ticket, which I got at 10:55 p.m. We then exchanged e-mail addresses and hugs, and I took the metro to my neighbourhood. Since I had not had dinner, I bought a lemon muffin and a bottle of water at the 7-Eleven, which I munched on as I arrived at Jarl's house. Jarl was still up, so we chatted for a while. I told him about the ABBA museum, and how I had a ticket for opening day. He told me where to find towels and toiletries, and then I went to sleep fairly quickly, eager to see the museum the next day.